ENTERPRISE SERIES

The Marketer’s
Guide to Website
Performance
How to Optimise Your Site’s Speed and
Performance to Improve UX and Attract
More Customers
The Marketer’s Guide to Website Performance

Introduction

As a marketing professional, you may be as shocked as we were to learn Authors

that it only takes around 50 milli-seconds, or 0.05 seconds, for visitors to
Robbie Westacott
form an opinion about your website. That opinion will usually determine
Paul Halfpenny
whether they like your site or not, and whether they’re going to stay or leave.
Si Cooke
Joy Clarke
This speed of thought will come as a brutal wake-up call to some marketers. Abe Selig
It’s an important reminder that you must do everything in your power to
provide the best possible user experience (UX) to your website visitors,
from the very first instant they land on a page.

While design, layout, accessibility, and other aspects of your site play a
key role in that UX, there’s one thing that comes before all of those, and
that’s website performance. If your site isn’t performing well enough, that’s
probably the first thing your users will notice, and they won’t be happy
about it.

This eBook will examine what website performance means in today’s fast-
moving digital landscape, provide practical tips and guidance to help you
optimise the performance of your own website, and highlight some lesser-
known pitfalls you should avoid.

1 in 4 visitors would abandon

a website if it takes more
than four seconds to load.
- Website Builder Expert
What is
Website
Performance?
Before we dive into the topic, it’s worth
looking at a brief definition of what we mean
by website performance:

Website performance refers to the speed,

responsiveness, and overall efficiency of your
website.

It’s an important aspect of your site that’s

determined by a range of factors, such as:

• The speed at which your web pages load

• How well your site functions
• Whether its design is responsive on mobile
• And more.

In this case, we’re not talking about how well

your website contributes to your business by
generating interest in your services.

Although, that should hopefully come as an

indirect result of faster speed and improved
UX.

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The Marketer’s Guide to Website Performance

Understanding
Website
Performance
These days, it’s pretty self-evident that you Poor performance, on the other hand, can
want your website to perform well. Even if you have a damaging impact on your business.
don’t have any technical knowledge of web Some potential outcomes of a slow website will
development, you’ll be aware from your own include:
experience as a consumer that it’s important
for websites to be fast and performant. • Frustrated website visitors and
unsatisfied customers

• Abandoned transactions and lost

conversions
Nearly 70% of consumers admit
that page speed influences their • Poor ranking in search engine results
likelihood to buy. pages (SERPs)
(Unbounce) • Negative brand reputation

• Lost business to higher performing

competitors
Clearly, optimising your site’s performance is
crucial for building a positive relationship with Good web performance is something you don’t
your target audience. even notice, whereas bad performance will be
painfully evident and will likely cause immediate
When your site has a good UX, you have an frustration.
infinitely better chance of retaining your visitors,
rather than letting them bounce off. The longer Despite this, achieving great website
someone spends on your site the more likely performance isn’t as simple or straightforward
they’ll come back, or even convert by following as you might think. Ensuring your website
a call-to-action, whether that’s to subscribe, performs well is a complex challenge, but it’s
make an enquiry, or purchase a product or one this eBook will help you solve.
service.

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What Factors Influence
Website Performance?

Web Hosting

While numerous factors affect website uptime guarantees between different hosting
performance, your web hosting provider will providers), studying an uptime SLA closely is a
play a particularly important role. crucial step when deciding where to host your
sites.
In most cases, they will be responsible for the
server infrastructure your website relies on, Hosting services will also vary with the other
as well as uptime, scalability, security, and elements noted earlier. You should look for
support. a provider that offers the ability to scale up
server resources when you need them, keep
Good uptime is typically considered 95%, your site safe and secure, and answer the call
with higher or lower uptime guarantees found whenever you need support.
in different hosting providers’ service level
agreements (SLAs). While some web hosts may offer an attractive
price point upfront, it’s essential to do your
Higher uptime guarantees will generally come homework to ensure you don’t end up paying
from higher quality web hosts, as uptime for hidden costs and cut corners down the
corresponds to the strength of a provider’s road.
server infrastructure.
The right web host should serve as a natural
That server strength will also power your extension of your team, helping you work
page speed, as server requests that can be smarter, not harder, while providing you with
processed more quickly translate into faster- the expertise your site requires to perform to
loading pages. the required standards.. In short, your web
host is essential to website performance.
Given the importance of keeping your site
running smoothly (and given the variance in

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The Marketer’s Guide to Website Performance

What Factors Influence

Website Performance?
(Continued)

Use of Images Your Choice of Platform

The images you use on your web pages will Your choice of web platform is also crucial to
play an influential role in site performance. website performance.

As you can probably guess, the bigger the For most businesses, this involves working with
image files you use on a web page, the slower a web design and development agency. In that
that page will take to load.
case, your choice of a specialist partner who
will support you in managing and maintaining
For this reason, it’s important to optimise
that platform is even more important.
every image you use on your website. The
optimum size, however, does vary based on
If a CMS isn’t configured, managed,
the image itself, your site, and so on. The type
maintained, or updated to the necessary best
of image files you use can also slow down
your web pages. practices, your website will inevitably suffer
from performance issues. This often requires

To help keep your images from dragging an experienced partner with technology-

your performance down, you can use specific expertise to build and manage your
compression tools on the files, crop them to site, giving you full confidence that it will
the right dimensions, and stick to reasonable perform as desired.
resolutions.
Of course, with technology advancing so
It’s also beneficial to limit the number of rapidly, some older, more cumbersome
images you use on any given web page, as a platforms are now simply less capable of
high volume will negatively impact speed. meeting the performance demands of today’s
users, regardless of who’s managing them.

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Re-directs HTTP Requests

Re-directs quite literally re-direct your users HTTP requests occur when your users’ web
from one web page to another. If you have a browser requests information from your
high volume of re-directs in place, or you have site’s server. That server then sends data to
re-directs to non-existent pages, this may be the browser, and that data is displayed to the
slowing your site down. user as content on a web page.

It’s useful to remove any old, redundant re- Website performance improves when the
directs to improve your site’s performance. number of HTTP requests your users’ browser
You can also use a 301 permanent re-direct has to make is reduced. This can be done by
to tell Google that a new page is replacing an optimising image files, as discussed earlier, as
old one, and this will send all your traffic to the well as optimising your JavaScript and CSS
new page. files.

Web Page Weight JavaScript

Images are one aspect of a wider issue, which Another important contributing factor to web
is page weight. This is the size of your web page weight is your use of JavaScript, which is
pages, determined by things like style sheets, one of the core programming languages that
documents, text, and the aforementioned the Internet is built on.
image files you use.
If your site uses too much JavaScript, or
The more content you include on a web page, applies JavaScript in complex ways, it can
the larger it will be in terms of its number of slow down the loading speed of your pages.
bytes. This will directly affect the page load It can also slow down the functionality of the
speed. on-page elements of your site, creating a
more frustrating UX for your visitors.
It’s been suggested that the optimum size for
a web page is around 1MB. This is something
to keep in mind when we come to the
measurement of website performance later
in the eBook.

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The Marketer’s Guide to Website Performance

A Process to Take Your Website Performance

from Good (or Bad) to Great
Ultimately, your audience’s expectations for Even if your web pages are safely loading within
website performance are the main concern here. that time-frame, it’s still highly beneficial to
Most people want to see web pages loading in improve the performance of your website to
around one second or less. Most users will only provide a better UX for your visitors.
tolerate a maximum of two seconds loading time.

1
Conduct an assessment by testing your site’s current performance -
you can do this with tools like PageSpeed Insights or GTmetrix

2
Set KPIs for performance - for example, page load speed, average
session duration, bounce rate, conversion rate, and so on

3
Identify any problems and room for improvement,
and make adjustments to resolve these

4
Upgrade your server - for example, going from PHP
7.2 to 8.1 can give you a 40% boost

8
 5
Optimise your images and any other media files

6
Remove unnecessary JavaScript frameworks and
rewrite your sites JS using vanilla JS

7
Minimise your HTTP requests

8
Reduce and remove re-directs

Continue to monitor and measure performance regularly, and continue

to optimise performance against your KPIs on an ongoing basis

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The Marketer’s Guide to Website Performance

Pitfalls and
Mistakes To Avoid
Once you understand the influencing factors
on the performance of your website, it also
becomes easier to identify certain mistakes
you may be making that hinder the speed of
your site.

Many business websites are prone to falling

into at least one of the following pitfalls. If
any of these resonate with you, aim to move
away from them as a priority and watch the
performance of your site improve.

Don’t think you can optimise Don’t remain loyal to a platform

website performance without or CMS if it’s failing to deliver
measuring it the performance you need

As highlighted in the previous section, As mentioned earlier, the platform

measuring performance is critical to you’ve built your site on will also have a
improving performance. Too many strong influence on performance. Many
businesses leave this up to chance, but it’s businesses continue to use old platforms
so important to put the necessary tools that are failing to meet the necessary
and processes in place to keep a close requirements, but it’s essential to approach
eye on your site’s performance and take this realistically. Always be prepared to
immediate action any time it begins to make a change if the performance of your
slow down. website isn’t up to standards.

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Don’t select a hosting Don’t let too many plugins
provider that’s unable to meet bloat your platform and slow
performance requirements down your site

Since hosting provider will have a For businesses working without the
significant influence on your website’s guidance of an experienced agency, it’s a
performance, choosing a provider who common mistake to use an unnecessarily
is unable to meet your performance high volume of plugins, including plugins
requirements could be a recipe for that are low quality.
disaster.
The more plugins you use, especially
If you select a host you’re unable to trust if they aren’t up to the required
and their service ends up falling below development standards, makes you
standard, you risk downtime, slow page more likely to encounter problems with
loading, security vulnerabilities, and performance.
other problems.
Particularly with platforms like
To avoid this, you should emphasise WordPress, it’s important to choose your
your non-negotiable hosting needs as plugins carefully and ensure they’re not
early as possible, and select a host that slowing down your site. Continuing to use
specialises in your tech stack. plugins that aren’t kept updated can also
have a negative effect on performance.
If you work with WordPress, for example,
look for a provider offering specialised It’s worth noting that bespoke
WordPress hosting to ensure you can development may be a more suitable
optimise your sites efficiently. approach than using plugins for certain
requirements, and that will also deliver
greater performance.

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The Marketer’s Guide to Website Performance

Don’t overlook the value of a Don’t neglect or overlook mobile

CDN to improve speed for your
global audience Over the past year or so, around 60% of
all web traffic comes from mobile devices.
When people from different parts of the When more than half of your audience
world visit your website, the page load prefers to visit your site via mobile, you
speed can be affected by their physical can’t afford to overlook this aspect of your
distance from the location of your servers. site’s performance.

Using a content delivery network Optimising your website to perform well

(CDN) to send your data and content on mobile will help you maximise the
from a server nearer their location will positive experiences you deliver to your
accelerate the loading speed and improve visitors across all channels.
the performance of your site for those
international audiences.

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What’s the Relationship
Between SEO and
Website Performance?

Since your website’s performance has an

impact on your ranking in SERPs, a successful
search engine optimisation (SEO) strategy
requires your site to move fast and perform
well.

Google has actually been using website speed

as a factor in its SERP ranking algorithm for
over a decade, and this now accounts for both
desktop and mobile contexts.

All marketers should understand the value of

strong SEO, but many don’t realise that speed
and performance are integral to that.

If you’re looking to overtake competitors

in organic search traffic, you’ll benefit from
spending time improving the page load speed
of your website. The speed of your website
also influences your ranking factor for search
advertising as well.

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The Marketer’s Guide to Website Performance

What’s the Relationship

Between Security and
Website Performance?

Like most aspects of your website, it’s

important to consider security when
addressing performance. Certain aspects
of web security can slow down your
website if not implemented strategically
with performance in mind, from hosting, to
updates, to monitoring tools.

To safely secure your website with full

confidence, in a way that won’t compromise
speed or performance for your visitors,
follow these useful tips:

1. Choose a secure hosting provider

2. Perform regular software updates

3. Utilise content delivery networks (CDNs)

4. Always optimise imagery

5. Use only lightweight reputable plugins

6. Implement strong passwords and 2FA

7. Secure data transmission with an secure sockets layer (SSL) certificate

8. Deploy a web application firewall (WAF)

9. Perform regular backups

10. Conduct periodic audits and testing

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Website Performance
Within WordPress

If your site is built on WordPress, you • SEO-Friendly - Search engines quickly

immediately have an advantage in terms crawl and index WordPress sites, due
of performance. That’s because WordPress to their clean code and SEO-friendly
is renowned as one of the most scalable features. This can contribute further
and flexible content management systems to better SERP rankings and increased
(CMSs) available today. visibility.

• Rich Plugin Ecosystem - WordPress

WordPress’s versatility includes its ability offers a vast repository of plugins
to support various types of websites, designed to improve performance.
from enterprise-grade business sites to You can install a plugin to enhance site
eCommerce giants, and its intrinsic features speed, optimise images, and implement
deliver several performance benefits that caching to boost performance further.
can significantly improve your site’s UX.
• Content Delivery - WordPress
seamlessly integrates with CDNs,
• Scalability - As noted above, WordPress
ensuring your website’s content is
is incredibly scalable, allowing your
delivered quickly to users around the
website’s speed and performance to be
globe.
maintained as it grows seamlessly in line
with your business needs.
With its speed, scalability, and out-of-the-
• Speed and Efficiency - WordPress box SEO features, WordPress offers a wide
is optimised for speed, as its core variety of native capabilities for achieving
codebase is lightweight. This means high performance.
your WordPress sites are designed to
load quickly. By taking advantage of these built-in
• Robust Architecture - WordPress advantages, you can gain full confidence
boasts a robust architecture that can that your site’s performance will meet your
handle high traffic volumes without users’ expectations.
compromising performance, making
it suitable for websites of all sizes and
niches, even in instances of unusually
high traffic.

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The Marketer’s Guide to Website Performance

The Benefits of
Improved Website
Performance
Improving the performance of your website
is obviously a tremendous benefit to your
business. This ultimately comes down to the
fact that you should always be striving to
deliver the best possible UX for your visitors.

There are some additional advantages

and opportunities that can be gained from
boosting your site’s performance, though,
which may provide even more incentive to
follow the advice detailed in this eBook.

These include:

• Reduced bounce rates

• Improved visitor retention

• Increased conversion rates

• More engagement from your mobile-first audience

• Higher rankings in SERPs

• A boosted brand reputation

• Greater customer loyalty

• A valuable edge over your slower competitors

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The Future of Website
Performance

Since the technology powering our websites Additionally, it means you can use your CMS
is now evolving so quickly, it’s important to to manage content for multiple front-ends
look ahead to trends that will have an impact at the same time. This is possible because
on your relationship with your target audience you’re not tying your content to a single
in future. layout structure or template, so it can be used
in different formats.
A trend that will continue to gain momentum
over the next few years is using a “headless” An example of this is where the same content
approach to website development and is presented on both a website and a mobile
content management. app, but displayed in a different layout on
each. This model improves the consistency
As we discussed in a related article, a headless of the content you create and reduces
CMS is an approach that separates the back- administration time.
end content management platform from
your front-end website. The CMS delivers As speed and convenience become
the content via data APIs, while the front-end increasingly important to users, there are
manages the rendering and presentation to benefits to be gained from considering a
visitors. headless CMS to manage your website.

This approach, when implemented correctly,

can enable improved performance on the
front-end of your website after the first load,
as the server only needs to send the data
requested (as JSON, for example), which is
more lightweight than having to render the
page on the server side and then send both
the data and the HTML for the layout.

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 The Marketer’s Guide to Website Performance

Final Thoughts

In today’s digital landscape, your target Your prioritisation for this process should
audience not only expects, but demands, rapid, become clear as soon as you conduct a
frictionless interactions with your business on performance assessment and determine all
your website. Any hint of poor performance your areas of weakness.
or slow page load speeds is likely to turn your
visitors away and send them straight to your Another proven, trustworthy way to maximise
competition. the performance of your site is to leverage the
experience and expertise of your web hosting
Clearly, a highly performant website is crucial partner or your web development agency.
to success online these days. Not only does it
provide a positive UX that will help you retain To gain a precise understanding of your
your direct visitors, but it will also help you website’s current performance, you can take
appear higher in SERP rankings, providing advantage of a free, no-obligation performance
exposure to a larger audience. audit with our team.

Of course, this is easier said than done. The This will help you identify room for improvement
most effective approach is to begin with the and take valuable opportunities to deliver a
quick, easy wins and low-hanging fruit. Once greater UX to your audience.
you’ve taken advantage of all those to boost
performance, you can then work your way up to
the more technical issues.

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 About Filter

Founded by CEO Oliver Morrison and CTO Paul

Halfpenny in 2016, Filter builds next generation
web platforms, working with progressive
businesses across several industries including
hospitality, finance and care.

Our highly skilled and knowledgeable team

brings industry-leading expertise to any digital
project, and we help our clients to differentiate
themselves through the use of technology and
up-to-date digital marketing strategies.

We work hard to make valuable contributions to

the industry by getting involved with key events
like WordCamp Europe, developing accessible
tools for businesses such as a free WordPress
personalisation plugin, and producing insightful
filteragency.com
resources like the one you’re reading now.

About WP Engine

WP Engine, the WordPress technology company,

provides the most relied upon and trusted
developer-centric WordPress products for
companies and agencies of all sizes.

Including managed WordPress hosting,

enterprise WordPress, headless WordPress,
Flywheel, Local, Advanced Custom Fields, and
Genesis.

WP Engine’s tech innovation and award-winning

WordPress experts help to power more than 1
million customers across 150 countries.
wpengine.com

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The Marketer’s Guide to Website Performance

If you’d like to explore your options when it comes to

website performance, why not organise a convenient
time to talk to our experienced specialists today?
We’d love to hear from you.

Get in touch to
book a free website
performance
audit today.
+44 (0) 208 0883030
[email protected]
filteragency.com